A mystifying series of events was witnessed by Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst and his co-pilot as they flew their Boeing 747 to Alaska in 'a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water.'

According to Daily Mail, the pilot saw 'an intense flash of light like a lightning bolt, directed vertically up in the distance.' The Huffington Post reported that 20 minutes later, he saw a collection of red glowing lights beneath him.

'Last night over the Pacific Ocean, somewhere South of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka I experienced the creepiest thing so far in my flying career,' he said.

'The closer we got, the more intense the glow became, illuminating the clouds and sky below us in a scary orange glow, in a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water,' he continued.

'The only cause of this red glow that we could think of, was the explosion of a huge volcano just underneath the surface of the ocean, about 30 minutes before we overflew that exact position.'

While the pilot said the scenario left him and his co-pilot feeling extremely uncomfortable, he is hoping it will pay off: 'Now I'm just hoping that if a new island has been formed there [from the eruption], at least it can be named after me as the official discovered,' the pilot told Daily Mail.